She heard a beep. Patrik had left a message on her mobile.

‘Where is everybody?’ Mellberg was still feeling groggy as he looked around. He’d dozed off for just a few minutes, and when he awoke the station was deserted. Had the others gone off to the café without asking his permission?

He rushed out to the reception area, where he found Annika.

‘What’s going on here? Does everybody think it’s already the weekend? Why isn’t anyone working? If they’re over at the bakery, they’re in for a reprimand when they get back. The municipality expects us to be on the job at all times, and we have an obligation’ – he started waving his finger in the air – ‘to be here when our fellow citizens need us.’ Mellberg loved to hear the sound of his own voice, particularly when he adopted an authoritative tone.

Annika stared at him without saying a word. Mellberg began to fidget. He’d expected her to shower him with excuses and apologies on behalf of her colleagues. Instead, he suddenly had a most unpleasant feeling come over him.

After a moment Annika said calmly:

‘They were called out to Fjällbacka. A lot of things have happened while you were working in your office.’ She said the word ‘working’ without a hint of sarcasm, but something told him that she was fully aware that he’d been taking a little siesta. So it was up to him to salvage the situation.

‘Why didn’t anyone tell me?’

‘Patrik tried. He knocked on your door for a long time. But you had locked the door, and there was no answer. Finally he was forced to leave.’

‘Er… yes, well, sometimes I get so immersed in my work that I don’t hear a thing,’ said Mellberg, swearing to himself. Why did he have to be such a bloody sound sleeper? It was both a gift and a curse.

‘Hmmm…’ replied Annika, turning back to her computer screen.

‘So what’s happened?’ Mellberg demanded, still feeling that he’d been played for a fool.

Annika quickly gave him a summary of what had happened at Christian’s house and to Kenneth on the jogging trail. Mellberg listened, open-mouthed. Things were getting stranger and stranger.

‘They’ll be back soon; at least, Patrik and Paula will. They’ll be able to tell you more of the details. Martin and Gösta drove down to Uddevalla to have a talk with Kenneth, so it might be a while before they get back.’

‘Tell Patrik to come and see me as soon as he gets in,’ said Mellberg. ‘And tell him to knock louder this time.’

‘Okay, I’ll tell him. And I’ll make sure that he does knock louder. In case you’re engrossed in your work again.’

Annika looked at him with a serious expression, but Mellberg still couldn’t shake the feeling that she was mocking him.

‘Can’t you come with us? Why do you have to stay here?’ Sanna tossed a couple of shirts into her suitcase.

Christian didn’t reply, which just made her more upset.

‘Answer me! Why do you have to stay here all alone in the house? It’s so crazy, so…’ Angrily she threw a pair of jeans at the suitcase, but she missed and they landed on the floor at Christian’s feet. She went over to pick them up, but instead cupped his face in her hands. She tried to catch his eye, but he refused to look at her.

‘Christian, sweetheart. I don’t understand. Why won’t you come with us? It’s not safe for you to stay here.’

‘There’s nothing to understand,’ he said, removing her hands. ‘I’m staying here, and that’s all there is to it. I have no intention of running away.’

‘Running away from whom? From what? I hope to God you don’t know who is doing this and you’re just not telling us.’ Tears were streaming down her cheeks, and she could still feel the warmth of Christian’s face on the palms of her hands. He never let her come close, and that stung. In situations like this, they ought to be able to support each other. But he was turning his back on her, refusing to let her in. Humiliation made Sanna’s cheeks turn red, and she looked away. Then she went back to her packing.

‘How long do you think we need to stay there?’ she asked, stuffing into the suitcase a fistful of knickers and stockings that she’d taken from the top drawer.

‘How should I know?’ Christian had taken off his bathrobe, washed the red paint from his chest, and put on jeans and a T-shirt. She still thought he was the handsomest man she’d ever seen. She loved him so much it hurt.

Sanna closed the drawer and glanced out into the hall where the boys were playing. They were quieter than usual. More serious. Nils was pushing his cars back and forth, while Melker was making his action figures fight with each other. Both were playing without making the normal sound effects, and without quarrelling, which almost never happened.

‘Do you think they…?’ She started to cry again and had to start over. ‘Do you think they were harmed?’

‘They don’t have a scratch on them.’

‘I don’t mean physically.’ Sanna couldn’t understand how Christian could be so cold, so calm. This morning he had seemed just as shocked, confused, and scared as she was. Now he was acting as if nothing had happened, or as if it were a mere trifle.

Someone had come into their home while they were asleep and gone into the boys’ room. And now they might feel scared and unsafe for ever after, no longer secure in the knowledge that nothing could happen to them when they were at home in their own beds. That nothing could happen when their parents were only a few yards away. Their feeling of security might now be gone for good. Yet their father sat there, so calm and distant, as if he didn’t care. And because of that, right now, at this particular moment, she hated him.

‘Children forget so quickly,’ said Christian, looking down at his hands.

She saw that he had deep scratches on the palm of one hand, and she wondered how he’d got them. But she didn’t ask. For once she didn’t ask. Could it be that their marriage was over? If Christian couldn’t let her in and love her even when something evil and horrible was threatening them, maybe it was time for her to give up.

She kept on tossing things into the suitcase, not caring what sort of clothes she was packing. Her tears made everything look blurry, and she simply grabbed whatever she could pull off the hangers. Finally the suitcase was filled to overflowing, and she had to sit on it to close it properly.

‘Wait, let me help you.’ Christian got up and added his weight to the suitcase so that Sanna could close the zipper. ‘I’ll take it downstairs.’ He grabbed the handle and carried it out of the room, past the boys.

‘Why do we have to go to Aunt Agneta’s? Why are we taking so many things with us? Are we going to be gone for a long time?’ Melker sounded so anxious that Christian stopped halfway down the stairs. Then he continued on, without saying a word.

Sanna went over to her sons and squatted down next to them. She tried to sound calm as she said:

‘Let’s pretend that we’re going on holiday. But we’re not going far away, just over to visit your aunt and cousins. You usually think that’s lots of fun. And I’ll make you a special treat for dinner tonight. Since we’re on holiday, you can have some sweets after dinner, even though it’s not Saturday.’

The boys looked at her a bit suspiciously at first, but the promise of sweets seemed to work magic. ‘Are we all going?’ asked Melker, and then his brother repeated, with a slight lisp: ‘Are we all going?’

Sanna took a deep breath. ‘No, just the three of us. Pappa has to stay here.’

‘That’s right. Pappa has to stay here and fight with those stupid people,’ said Melker.

‘What stupid people?’ said Sanna, patting his cheek.

‘The people who messed up our room.’ He crossed his arms and looked angry. ‘If they come back, Pappa can beat them up!’

‘Pappa isn’t going to fight with any stupid people, because they’re not coming back.’ She stroked Melker’s hair, silently cursing Christian. Why wouldn’t he go with them? Why didn’t he say anything? She stood up.